The Dispatch

Aquinas on humor and social life

September 13, 2021 Dr. Edward Feser 6

In Summa Theologiae (II-II.168.2-4), Aquinas discusses the essential role that play and humor have in human life.  They are necessary for the health of the individual, insofar as in their absence the mind becomes weary […]

Features

Pope Francis’s scarlet letter

July 26, 2021 Dr. Edward Feser 100

Consider two groups of Catholics:  First, divorced Catholics who disobey the Church’s teaching by forming a “new union” in which they are sexually active, thereby committing adultery.  And second, traditionalist Catholics attached to the Extraordinary […]

The Dispatch

Do not abandon your Mother

May 31, 2021 Dr. Edward Feser 18

In Catholic theology, the Church is not to be identified with a mere aggregate of her members, not even those members who happen to hold ecclesiastical office at any particular moment.  She is an institution […]

Essay

Corporate persons and corporate corruption

April 23, 2021 Dr. Edward Feser 22

A neglected insight of Scholastic political philosophy and traditional conservatism is that institutions can have a personal nature.  The Church, a government, a business firm, a university, a club, and similar social formations are like this.  They […]